Congress

Perhaps you have seen this list making its way around the Internet. It asks, Can you imagine working at the following company? It has a little over 500 employees with the following statistics:

• 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
• 7 have been arrested for fraud
• 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
• 117 have bankrupted at least two businesses
• 3 have been arrested for assault
• 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
• 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
• 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
• 21 are current defendants in lawsuits

In 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving. Can you guess which organization this is? Give up? It's the 535 members of your United States Congress.

Now, I know there are a number of hoaxes been sent around the Internet, so I won't vouch for the validity of each of the statistics. But I know enough about Congress to know that some of the numbers seem about right. And really that's the point. This list wouldn't ring true if you applied it to many other organizations. The fact that it seems believable speaks to the core issue of ethics in government. Public perception of government (both the President and the Congress) is low.

This is an election year, and I believe each of us have a responsibility to look at those running for office with a great deal of scrutiny. It's said that in a democracy, we end up with the leaders we deserve. We have the responsibility to elect the right leaders. A member of Congress must be right on the issues and must have integrity and be a person of character. So this year, let's do what we can to elect a Congress that isn't the punch line of an Internet joke.

I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.